Families: Team Ten
by Valira
Summary: Team Ten truely is a family. Hints of Shikaino. Drabble. Musings.


Team Ten was a family, they might not look like it but they where. Most of the teams in Konoha where; Team seven looked like the closest of all of them once they got their avenger back, Team eight consisted of four people who where abandoned by somebody important to them and relied on each other for that special connection, Team Gai didn't look like a family at all but if you looked close enough Tenten mothered them all, Neji cared for Gai and Lee enough to not kill them and Gai and Lee where Gai and Lee, Team Ten was the closest of them all.

They'd been together since the beginning, Shikamaru standing up for Choji in that subtle way even as a little kid, Ino bossing them both around for their own good even as a toddler.

Ino wasn't always the brash, confidant domineering kunoichi she seemed to be; she was insecure, clingy, and hurt. She relied on Choji to do what she always felt she couldn't, to eat those four million bags of potato chips as if it where nothing and her figure wouldn't be shot to hell. She relied on her Shika-kun the most; he was always there when she needed a shoulder to cry on and that ever so subtle ego boost. She needed to tell him all about her newest boyfriends so that maybe someday he might just get jealous enough to reach over and kiss her. Asuma-sensei came later in her life, but she still needed him. He praised her and trained her and made her realize that sometimes it's better to be smart than pretty.

Choji was what he let people see; kind hearted and soft. He didn't like killing people, so he needed Ino to cry for him when he did. He needed her to yell at him and scream his ears off trying to make him better; he needed the sense of normalcy it brought. When he was younger he needed Shikamaru in the way a best friend would, to be protected and to be made to feel good about himself, and as he grew older he still needed the Nara boy for those things, but he also needed him for comfort and training and to keep him alive so that Ino-Shika-Cho could go on forever and so that he could see all of Ino and Shikamaru's babies running around once those two got their heads out of their asses. He needed barbeque lunches with Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei because if they didn't happen then he would truly be alone and that scared him more than anything. Asuma was teacher, and while he didn't always seem like it he was good for it, and free lunch.

Shikamaru needed his team to keep him sane. He needed Choji to stay alive because he was his best friend and who better to give the laziest and most self conscious shinobi in Konoha the sense that everything might just be able to turn out just fine. He needed Asuma to play Shogi and Go with him and he needed him to loose every time because when Asuma won then Shikamaru knew he couldn't rely on his strategies anymore and his team might just die and he couldn't take that. He needed Ino around to boss him and nag him into doing things because he wouldn't otherwise and he needed her nagging and screaming because it meant she cared. He put up with being jealous of every other boy but him that got to hug her and kiss her and maybe see that tender side she only showed when he cajoled her into cloud-watching with him because it meant that she cared enough to tell him about her life. And later when Shikamaru joined ANBU he needed them all to keep him sane because there was just too much blood on his hands and he could see it all the time; in the daylight and even in his nightmares. He needed Ino to come rushing into his room at night when he started screaming and place a cool washcloth to his head and hum some song from when they where young and innocent and five years old to calm his nightly terrors. He needed Choji to make breakfast for the three of them in their three bedroom apartment and pretend like nothing happened while Ino chattered at him about him being okay.

Asuma needed his kids; he needed them to keep his mind from all the horrible things he'd done and still would do. He needed Choji to tease him about Kurenai and tell him he was good enough to go on another date with her. He needed Shikamaru when he was sane because that kept Ino sane and Ino kept everyone from breaking and those kids kept him sane and damn it he needed his sanity!

Team Ten needed each other for one reason or another and even though they didn't seem like it they where family.


End file.
